Hawthorn ruckman Peter Everitt's chances of being moved to Sydney have improved, with the Swans putting an increased trade offer on the table.

The Hawks had flatly rejected the Swans' initial offer of a third-round pick for the ruckman, prompting Sydney coach Paul Roos to say Everitt might be headed for the pre-season draft.

But, with Everitt's manager Ricky Nixon assisting negotiations between the two clubs, the Swans upped their offer to a second-round pick, along with an exchange of several lower-round selections.

The Hawks were considering the offer, with Sydney football manager Andrew Ireland saying negotiations were starting to progress in the right direction.

"You wouldn't say you're confident until the paperwork's in," Ireland said.

"But hopefully we'll get the right result at the end of the week."

St Kilda, which has put an offer to the Hawks, contacted Nixon about the possibility of Everitt returning to his former club, but the Swans remain his desired destination.

"The ball's in Hawthorn's court now, I think Sydney put a pretty fair deal to them," Nixon said.

Meanwhile, the futures of Collingwood star forward Chris Tarrant and Carlton fullback Bret Thornton remain uncertain.

Tarrant has been the subject of strong interest from Fremantle, but his preference is to join reigning premier West Coast, if he is to leave the Magpies.

"Right at the moment I think he's going to stay here," Collingwood chief executive Greg Swann said.

"We're not hearing much from the Eagles.

"We spoke to them yesterday and put on the table what we wanted.

"Freo are very keen, the issue is whether he'll go there."

The stalemate continued between Thornton and the Blues, with the 22-year-old reaffirming his desire to join Hawthorn but Carlton remaining adamant he will not be traded.

Thornton's manager Anthony McConville remained hopeful the two clubs would negotiate, but otherwise a way would have to be worked out for the Hawks to pick him up in the pre-season draft.

"That will have to be discussed with Bret and with Hawthorn when the time comes," he said.

"At this stage it's still for Carlton to have discussions with Hawthorn."

Richmond might have to use the pre-season draft if it is to grant Fremantle defender Graham Polak his wish to move to Tigerland, with a trade looking unlikely.

Richmond would need to trade out a player to another club to be able to engineer a deal for Polak, but has received little interest.

Tigers football director Greg Miller said the club's interest in Polak had never been "a be-all and end-all" approach, but it would keep its options open ahead of the draft.

"It depends what's in the pool, last year we drafted a junior in Matthew White, who ended up playing 13 or 14 games for us," Miller said.

"We'll leave a spot available."

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